A useful alternate history asks what decision-makers valued and why a ship was unavailable, rather than simply inserting it into a favored battle. Every change to Furious's location requires an earlier change to her ferry work, maintenance, refit, or fleet commitments. Those historical absences reveal what leaders considered more urgent at the time. Ignoring the prior choices turns a counterfactual into a device for reinforcing a preferred conclusion. Furious is therefore a case study in using alternate history to expose priorities, dependencies, and opportunity costs.
Notable Point · 49:12-51:23
Using counterfactuals to uncover historical priorities
The closing argument uses Furious to distinguish careful counterfactual analysis from scenarios that merely reinforce a preferred conclusion.